Section 12: Jezebel's - Chapter thirty-eight

Synopsis of chapter thirty-eight

Offred goes to the ‘ladies' room' to meet Moira, who tells her how she escaped from the Red Centre dressed in Aunt Elizabeth's uniform. Moira describes how she had walked for many miles, wondering where to go. She then remembered the address of a Quaker couple from her days with an underground press, and they took her in. They arranged for her to be smuggled north, but on the final stage of her escape route to Canada she was caught, and taken to an interrogation centre where she was tortured. Finally she was given the choice of being sent to the Colonies, where she would die from sorting toxic waste, or to Jezebel's, as a sex worker. She seems resigned to her situation at Jezebel's, and this attitude from the formerly rebellious Moira shocks and saddens Offred, who had looked to Moira as an example of someone daring and resistant to the régime.

Commentary on chapter thirty-eight

an Aunt. The cattle prod's on the table - a reminder of the brutality - and hypocrisy - of the régime in Gilead. The Aunts tell the women at the Red Centre of the evils of promiscuous sex, yet they use force to keep the women at Jezebel's as sex workers.

they haven't removed the mirror - The Handmaids have no access to mirrors, partly because they are not supposed to be vain about their appearance but also because they could use splintered glass as a weapon or to commit suicide.

4The woman was dressed in purple and scarlet, and was glittering with gold, precious stones and pearls. She held a golden cup in her hand, filled with abominable things and the filth of her adulteries. 5 The name written on her forehead was a mystery:
BABYLON THE GREAT
THE MOTHER OF PROSTITUTES
AND OF THE ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH. (TNIV)

It is ironic that the Handmaids, who are supposed to be sexually pure (except with their Commanders) are dressed by the Republic in scarlet - traditionally, as with the Whore of Babylon, the colour of prostitution.

What'd you do wrong? - Moira makes it very clear that being sent to work at Jezebels' is a punishment, and that the women there are prisoners.

I can't remember exactly - Offred's comment reminds us that her account is a construct, and that she may be an unreliable narrator, whilst simultaneously sounding as if she is a ‘real' person attempting to produce an accurate memoir. (See Structure and methods of narration.)

Quaker - The Quakers (see chapter 14) are a particularly peaceful Christian group. They believe in non-violence and have been especially active in opposing the slave trade, and in promoting the rights of women and prisoners. It is ironic that such a group should be singled out for persecution by the régime in Gilead.

they busted the press - This is the printing press organised by a women's collective, for which Moira was working before her arrest. (See chapter 28.)

Zip code - The American equivalent of the British postcode.

Mass Ave - A shortened version of Massachusetts Avenue, probably the one in Boston (there is also one in Washington D.C.). The exact location of The Handmaid's Tale is unspecified, but may well be Cambridge, Massachusetts, where there is an important University such as depicted in, for example, chapters 5 and 6. Massachusetts Avenue runs from Cambridge - an outlying district of Boston - into the main part of the city. Cambridge and that area of Massachusetts were centres of Puritantheology in the seventeenth century.

Paydirt - An American expression meaning ‘gold', referring to earth with gold ore in it. Moira means that, because this couple had access to an escape route for her, they were a wonderful discovery.

Underground Femaleroad - Atwood is here playing on the name of the Underground Railroad, an organisation which, in the middle of the nineteenth century, smuggled escaped slaves from America into Canada. (See Social / political context > Political satire > Slavery.)

risking their lives for you … for religious reasons - It is ironic that the Quakers are prepared to take such risks ‘for religious reasons', when Gilead itself is supposed to be a religious régime. But as Moira says, when comparing their prayers with the ‘shit' - i.e. the religious hypocrisy - at the Red Centre, ‘this was a whole other thing.'

They got me up as far as Salem - Salem is a city noted for its fundamentalist Puritan beliefs and régime in the seventeenth century, especially its witch trials (as depicted in the play The Crucible by Arthur Miller, which is also an attack on the McCarthyist anti-Communist interrogations of the nineteen-fifties in America.). Salem is north of Boston, and Moira was well on her way towards the Canadian border.

The other Colonies are the worst … radiation spills - Atwood is depicting a world in which man-made environmental disasters have spoilt the natural world and led to fertility problems. Those who are seen as useless by the régime in Gilead - for example the elderly and infertile - are sent to the Colonies as a punishment and to die.

long dresses ... to demoralize the men - Gilead deals not only in torture and death, but in deliberate humiliation.

indifference, a lack of volition ... I don't want her to be like me - Offred has shown that she is determined to survive, but she has looked up to Moira as a more pro-active revolutionary. It is a shock for Offred to sense that Moira has lost her will to fight.

I don't know how she ended ... because I never saw her again - Moira's is an unfinished story; the reader has to imagine what happens to her. However, this is even more true of Offred herself, as we find when we read the final section, ‘Historical Notes'.

Investigating chapter thirty-eight

Use the Internet to find out more about the Underground Railroad, which helped escaped slaves in nineteenth-century America

Or read Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowe, a nineteenth-century American novel which shocked its readers with a depiction of the lives of slaves and their attempts to escape.

English Standard Version

King James Version

1Then one of the seven angels who had the seven bowls came and said to me, Come, I will show you the judgment of the great prostitute who is seated on many waters,2with whom the kings of the earth have committed sexual immorality, and with the wine of whose sexual immorality the dwellers on earth have become drunk.3And he carried me away in the Spirit into a wilderness, and I saw a woman sitting on a scarlet beast that was full of blasphemous names, and it had seven heads and ten horns.4The woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet, and adorned with gold and jewels and pearls, holding in her hand a golden cup full of abominations and the impurities of her sexual immorality.5And on her forehead was written a name of mystery: Babylon the great, mother of prostitutes and of earth's abominations.6And I saw the woman, drunk with the blood of the saints, the blood of the martyrs of Jesus. When I saw her, I marveled greatly.7But the angel said to me, Why do you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast with seven heads and ten horns that carries her.8The beast that you saw was, and is not, and is about to rise from the bottomless pit and go to destruction. And the dwellers on earth whose names have not been written in the book of life from the foundation of the world will marvel to see the beast, because it was and is not and is to come.9This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated;10they are also seven kings, five of whom have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come, and when he does come he must remain only a little while.11As for the beast that was and is not, it is an eighth but it belongs to the seven, and it goes to destruction.12And the ten horns that you saw are ten kings who have not yet received royal power, but they are to receive authority as kings for one hour, together with the beast.13These are of one mind, and they hand over their power and authority to the beast.14They will make war on the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, for he is Lord of lords and King of kings, and those with him are called and chosen and faithful.15And the angel said to me, The waters that you saw, where the prostitute is seated, are peoples and multitudes and nations and languages.16And the ten horns that you saw, they and the beast will hate the prostitute. They will make her desolate and naked, and devour her flesh and burn her up with fire,17for God has put it into their hearts to carry out his purpose by being of one mind and handing over their royal power to the beast, until the words of God are fulfilled.18And the woman that you saw is the great city that has dominion over the kings of the earth.

1And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:2With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.3So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.4And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:5And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.6And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.7And the angel said unto me, Wherefore didst thou marvel? I will tell thee the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carrieth her, which hath the seven heads and ten horns.8The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.9And here is the mind which hath wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman sitteth.10And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is not yet come; and when he cometh, he must continue a short space.11And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and goeth into perdition.12And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.13These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.14These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with him are called, and chosen, and faithful.15And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.16And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.17For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.18And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

A metaphor for the ancient city of Babylon, used in the Book of Revelation. The image of prostitution is used to convey the city's unfaithfulness to God's ways and its destructive influence upon others.

The Christian Bible consists of the Old Testament scriptures inherited from Judaism, together with the New Testament, drawn from writings produced from c.40-125CE, which describe the life of Jesus and the establishment of the Christian church.

Principal enemy of Christ who exists to deny that 'Jesus is the Christ'

Title (eventually used as name) given to Jesus, refering to an anointed person set apart for a special task such as a king.

the narrator of, for example, a novel, whose viewpoint, the reader comes to realise, has been constructed by the author to be deliberately misleading

Name given to members of the 'Society of Friends', founded in the seventeenth century by George Fox. Quakers usually avoid set forms of worship, leaving individuals free to contribute as they wish.

Name originally given to disciples of Jesus by outsiders and gradually adopted by the Early Church.

Originally, a sixteenth and early seventeenth century Protestant, usually a Calvinist, who wished to reform the Church of England of all its Catholic characteristics.

The study of God.

1. A followers of a religion who believes the strict, literal interpretation of their scriptures
2. Strict beliefs or principles relating to a specific subject or discipline.

This is an example of apocalyptic literature, full of colourful imagery and symbolism. It contains seven letters to churches in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) who are commended for their zeal or criticised for lack of it. The overall message is that kingdom of God will triumph in the battle against evil and the book ends with a beautiful description of the Heavenly Jerusalem as the symbol of God's presence among humankind in a new heaven and earth.